The Killing Season

If you were knocked off the edge of your seat by The Jinx...or transfixed to the screen while binge watching Making A Murderer...you can thank Cropsey filmmaker Joshua Zeman, and his partner Rachel Mills, for their new documentary series: The Killing Season- which looks at the numerous cases of dead women (most being sex workers) and disposed bodies in and around Long Island, New York.

At least, that's where it begins...

Two episodes in and I'm already hooked.

We follow along as we watch Zeman, Mills, and their team make huge discoveries, as they uncover clue after clue...making progress in weeks, where the police seem to have failed for years (though not without someone in the dept's help, at least).

The filmmaking team have enlisted the help of a Herzogian Serial Killer Profiler, who sort of acts as the narrator, outlining the potential narrative as he sees it (and he's even German). I'm not sure I agree with everything he says, but f*ck if he doesn't keep things interesting with his far fetched and/or extremely intuitive theories (you be the judge).

Their seems to be two things going on: on one hand, an investigation into what is either one insanely clever and prolific serial killer, or, alternatively, two different serial killers, with two different MO's, working the same stomping ground (or perhaps even hunting each other, as the crazy German guy implies). Hell there may even be more than that... While on the other, it acts to query why the police seem wholly unconcerned about investigating and solving these crimes.

The filmmakers seem to imply they are about to break something huge, and of significance to more than just Long Island (a serial killing cabal, perhaps?)...

I guess we'll see how it plays out as the series progresses. But, one thing is certain, the filmmakers have really managed to fashion the narrative as to leave you on the edge of your seat, and dying to know more, as the end of each episode rolls around.

Awesome series from executive producer Alex Gibney, and filmmakers Joshua Zeman, and Rachel Mills, so far.

A must see series, for sure.

10 out of 10!!!

A bit over dramatic.

In terms of investigative reporting the documentarians ask non-open ended questions (but not leading questions).

Where there was information that had already been of no interest and disproved, the documentarians run with it and make it appear as a viable lead, untilllll they show why it was disproved.

I would have preferred them sticking to facts of the case and not wild speculation, a lot of "what if's" and "could it have been possible". Falls just short of conspiracy theories in that they do say when their "leads" had been already disproved.

It is interesting to have the "non experts" weigh in on the stories, fresh perspectives

I give them kudos for bringing to light the many unsolved murders that seem to be all but forgotten by law enforcement, but their investigation instincts are novice at best and they jump on leads of no apparent connections.

Amazing documentary that totally went under the radar!! It's one of the greatests true crime documentaries I've ever seen!

Just finished the first episode and I'm going to ramble off why the show sucks but is still decent enough to have as something on in the background. They're using websleuth and wikipedia to chase down leads. All you have to do is go to websleuth and click any thread at random and you'll see that the website is filled with extremely bored housewives that have read one too many sexy murder novels or borderline schizo delusional individuals that make up random nonsense with no basis in reality. Then they're literally tracking down and confronting people based on Wikipedia edits. They're also using an absolutely completely random foreigner that called into a radio program as an expert. They dropped off a prostitute at a hotel and started panicking after she was in there for more than an hour as if this was some sort of legitimate job where at an hour she just packs up and leaves. Then they play a recording of the guy that they tracked down and confronted expecting a girl to recognize the voice 6 years later when she has tons of random guys calling her every day. This is like children playing detective. I'm going to watch the entire series but only after watching the first episode it's clear to me what kind of show this is.